TVA officials working to keep up with extra water

Rain throughout the area has TVA working to keep up with the extra water.

Officials have been allowing water to spill over Watts Bar dam for around a week now. Seven other dams downstream on the Tennessee River are also spilling thanks to several inches of rain in parts of the state.

Since those dams have created more room for water, officials plan to begin spilling at Fort Loudon dam next.

"Our plan is to go into a spill operation at Fort Loudon tomorrow which means will be running turbines at capacity, generating as much electricity as we can, but that excess water will be passing over the spillway gates in a very controlled manner and keep the water moving downstream," said David Bowling with TVA.

As of Tuesday night, TVA was not spilling water from tributary lakes such as Douglas, Cherokee and Norris.

Officials plan to gradually draw down those lakes in the coming weeks as they do each year for the winter. They said the water is still too high for fly fishers to use them for now.